I do not plan to dump him, I plan on working through his behavior even if it takes months. I would never get rid of an animal for bahavioral issues. I didnt purposely let him near the rabbits, I have to go in my room and when I opened my to to go in my room he saw them. The rabbits are free range in my room and are usually by the door. I did make the mistake of getting a dog with a high prey drive but I did bring ferrets and guinea pigs with when I went to pick him up and he had no intrest in them so I thought it would be ok, which was also a mistake.
I plan on teaching him stay, focus and leave it. He already knows sit. He is VERY motivated by food. I dont have any experience with a klicker but I want to use one. Where do you get them?
So far today he has not been trying to get to any of the animals. I dont know why yesterday he was so determined.
I'm glad you're willing to work with him
Sorry to be so blunt, but I've seen sooooo many people end up dumping their dogs because they don't want to deal with a behavior, especially one that comes natural to the dog's breed.
Doing behavior adjustment training is much different than just teaching him to stay/focus/leave it. It's basically training to change how the dog feels towards something (not just teaching a behavior to IGNORE what is bothering/exciting them)
A clicker is not some magic training tool. I can't even begin to tell you all the times I've been at pet stores and ask how I trained my dog.
When I reply "Positive reinforcment".... they respond with something like "Oh, the clicker thing? I got one but my dog didin't listen to it"
I lost count of how many times I've seen someone pick up a clicker, and stand there clicking it in their dogs face, just expecting them to do something
A clicker is a marker signal. Basically, it's the same as saying "good boy", but soooooooooo much more precise. Saying "good boy" is sloppy and to a dog, it is confusing what you are actually rewarding. You say "good boy" when he lyes down, but by the time you've finished saying 'good boy" the dog has already moved. A clicker can mark the blink of an eye, literally.
Here is what I would do:
- Get a clicker. You can buy them at practically any pet store. They vary in size/shape, and range from cheap $0.50, to $5-10 for a fancy one. I perfer the cheap, generally .99cent clickers. Simple, cheap, easy to use (and the "cheap" part especially, because I have a million clicker's, constantly laying in every corner of the house
)
-Work with him, away from the other animals, with the clicker. Charge the clicker, teach him what the clicker means.
You do this by taking a bunch of really yummy, soft/moist treats (very small, pea sized).
Please note- *I mean, GOOD treats. Not little crunchy dog biscuits from the store. REAL meat, cheese, etc. Raw meat or cooked, whichever you perfer. I make beef heart treats all the time, those are a big favorite. Take a beef heart, cut it into strips (aprox 1" wide and 4-5" long) Put it in a frying pan with a little bit of butter and garlic. Cook until slightly brown on the outside. Take beef heart strips and put them on a frying pan. Cook at 350 for about 15ish minutes (it depends how thick the strips are). Take it out, cool for a few minutes, then while still warm cut it into tiny pea sized pieces.
Thats just once rescipe, there are a million more for real meat training treats out there. Just google it
*
You click, and give a treat. You aren't clicking for any behavior at all, you don't expect him to do anything to get the "click" at this point. You as simply teaching him that hearing the "click" means YES, thats right! a reward is coming!
Continue, click treat, click treat, click treat, click treat. Do that for 20-30 times (doesn't have to be all in one session, try spliting it into 2 or 3) Then wait until he isn't looking at you (somewhere in the house, no distractions) then click. If he immediatly turns and looks at you or comes running up, expecting a treat, then you are ready to start clicker training. If he doesn't, do more repititions of the click-treat. Some dogs get it quickly, others take more time.
-Start working him NEAR the door where the animals are. Have the door open if the animals are caged or behind a gate (for their saftey, obviously). And have the dog on a leash (attached to a harness. Not a collar)
Don't get close to the other animals when you start, you want to begin at a distance where he DOESN'T react to them. Whether that is 5ft away, or 25ft away.
Watch him closely as he looks towards the other animals. The second he is looking, not fixated, just looking, click and treat.
Keep doing this over and over. Soon he will start offering "looks" at the other animals. You'll get a quick look at them, and he will turn his head immediately back at you looking for a reward. If he doesn't look back at you immediately, you've gone to quickly and need to put more distance between him and the other animals.
-Once he is comfortable doing this, move closer. Depending on how he reacts, you may only be able to take one step closer (and that is perfectly okay, whatever works best for HIM)
Start over and click-treat him for looking at them at the closer distance. Every time you move closer, you lower your standards and act like he has never doen this before.
Continue with it, and eventually you can create a dog that doesn't react towards your animals at all. I've done it several times with great success. Bailey's "issues" with other dogs have come a very long way from where he once was. Now on a walk, instead of raising hackles, walking on tiptoes, growling, getting anxious and throwing calming signals, the SECOND he sees another dog he immediately looks back to me. If I don't respond to him right away, he looks at the dog again then looks back at me, over and over. It's like he's saying "LOOK, the dog is RIGHT THERE!! DON'T YOU SEE IT? I LOOKED AT IT!"
Good luck